OLG touts new anti-fraud technology

Ontario’s embattled lottery and gaming corporation has a new program, called Dart, which could help stamp out lottery fraud. The program detects buying patterns and creates a profile of the buyer of each ticket.<br /><br />

Ontario’s embattled lottery and gaming corporation says its new computer system could help stamp out lottery fraud.

The OLG says the program, called Dart, can detect buying patterns, creating a profile of the buyer of each ticket.

Investigators then use the information to narrow down the original buyer when there is a disputed lottery jackpot.

In September, provincial police laid fraud charges against a convenience store clerk and his two children who allegedly stole a lottery jackpot worth $12.5 million.

The OLG says it used Dart in that case to create a profile of the “rightful” ticket buyer, who had purchased the ticket in St. Catharines in 2003.

It is now using that profile to weed through the almost 600 people who claim they could have won the jackpot.

The Ontario government called in police three years ago after the province’s ombudsman accused lottery retailers of collecting millions of dollars in “dishonest” winnings.

The scandals led to criminal charges and changes, including requiring winners to sign tickets before handing them over to store clerks, and banning lottery retailers from buying tickets in their own stores.